The disclosures herein relate generally to computer systems and more particularly to a system and method for delivering component instrumentation in a computer system.
In manufacturing computer systems, a revision to a system""s component instrumentation, i.e. the system""s low-level system management support, may be necessary each time a new system management feature is added to the system. The revision may be necessary even where the feature is display-only at the operating system level.
One way to revise a system""s component instrumentation when a new feature is added may be to include information associated with the new feature in a non-volatile memory along with a system firmware. Unfortunately, the non-volatile memory that stores the system firmware may not be large enough to accommodate the amount of component information associated with the new feature.
It would be desirable to be able to add new system management features to a computer system without expanding the size of a non-volatile memory. Therefore, what is needed is a system and method for delivering component instrumentation in a computer system.
One embodiment, accordingly, provides a computer system that includes a program and component information stored in a hidden partition on a hard disk drive of the computer system. The program is configured to cause the computer system to store the component information into a portion of a memory, create a first table associated with the information, store the first table into the portion of the memory, and notify the system firmware of the first table and the portion of the memory.
A principal advantage of this embodiment is that it allows component information to be delivered in a computer system. By delivering component information, system management features may be added or modified with minimal cost to the computer system. The component information may be stored in existing memory locations in a computer system without the need to add additional non-volatile memory.